A Tour of New Super Mario Bros. 2

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From Mega to Mini and everything between.

By Richard George

While many of us (read: North America, Europe) have well over a month to wait for New Super Mario Bros. 2, some of us (say... Japan!) only have a couple weeks. As the game's release approaches for some of the world, Nintendo continues to push out more and more information, including screens and new footage.

First thing's first. There's a shiny new trailer for NSMB2, which showcases the returning Mega and Mini mushrooms, as well as an assortment of new levels and enemies. It's definitely worth a look.

Nintendo has provided a basic guide to the layout of the New Super Mario Bros. 2 Mushroom Kingdom. Using a fairly traditional overworld layout, versus the isolated, linear, world-to-world concept in Super Mario 3D Land, New Super Mario Bros. 2 continues to draw inspiration from its predecessors.

From there, Nintendo started to break down the different types of stages and areas players can encounter.

Peach's Castle

The most basic element in the New Super Mario Bros. 2 Mushroom Kingdom marks the start of its story. Mario and Luigi, both transformed into their Raccoon suits, bid goodbye to Princess Peach, soaring through the air to collect gold coins.

In what will no doubt be a stunning plot twist, Bowser and his Koopalings (all seven of them!) show up and wreck something and manage to kidnap the Princess. Again. At any rate, the castle marks your starting point in your adventure, and it has a physical presence on the initial overworld map.

The Basic Stage

Basic stages are just that - side-scrolling mayhem, where you not only attempt to reach a flag at the end of your mission, but attempt to grab as many coins as possible while you're doing it.

It's important to note that, as is custom in more modern Mario games, the overworld will give you a general indication about the general theme of the stage you're about to enter. It's not a full model, like what you saw in Super Mario 3D Land, but it still serves a purpose. If you see giant blocks or clouds or things of that nature, there's a good chance that's what's in store. The same goes for water areas - but we'll get to that in a second.

Item Shops

Everyone likes free stuff. Mario most of all. In fact, if you think about it, he just runs around stealing the Mushroom Kingdom's money. I mean, that money belongs to the people of Peach's kingdom, right? And this portly dude just runs around taking all of it... Some hero you've got there, Nintendo!

At any rate, the iconic item shops aren't quite free - you'll notice (in the upper left corner of the image) that there's a small Star Coin notice with a '5' on it. The usual restrictions apply there - have 5 of those coins, and get in the door to collect one of your prizes. (Personally I miss the days when they were all hidden in treasure chests and had to simply pick one. I'd agonize over those choices as a kid.) As of E3, one spare item would be stored away to use later via the touch screen, as was the case in the DS New Super Mario Bros.

The Fortress

A Mario standard dating back to Super Mario Bros. 3, the fortress is back, as expected. This level, near as we can tell, is one of the levels we were able to play at E3 2012, which culminated in a fight with the dreaded Reznor dinosaurs first introduced in Super Mario World.

Long a staple of Mario games, underwater stages have returned to haunt Mario, mostly in the form of giant, purple Cheep-Chomps - the more evolved, deadlier versions of the Cheep Cheeps, which have been in just about every Mario game ever.

The lesson? Make sure you have a Fire Flower, like this smart player in the screenshot. Never mind how illogical it would be to shoot fire in the water - it kills those fish dead.

The Castle

Last, but not least, we have the iconic castles that presumably house all of Bowser's Koopaling children.

This particular screen is almost identical to one released at E3, featuring both Mario and Luigi facing off against Roy Koopa. This time around Mario's alone, with only his Raccoon Suit to save him.

One thing we're eager to see - how each Koopaling's battle differs from the last. Roy's appears to figure pillars on the left and right that look far too ornate to be typical. Do they expand, contract or generally shift somehow?

That about wraps our tour of New Super Mario Bros. 2's Mushroom Kingdom. The game is due out July 28 in Japan, with Europe getting it on August 17 and North America lagging until August 19. Before you go, one more video, showcasing the range of environments and levels in the game.

Rich is an Executive Editor of IGN.com, and the leader of the network's Nintendo team. He also covers all things Assassin's Creed, Resident Evil, WWE and much, much more. You can follow him on Twitter and IGN, if you dare.